San Francisco: Day 2

After catching up on an episode of Suits, J and I had pretty late start to our day. Our main goal? Bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. We decided to walk up the Embarcadero from the Ferry Building to Fishermans Wharf, where we were planning to rent bikes for the day.

Of course, I had to begin my morning with a Blue Bottle latte. While waiting, I overheard an older lady say to her husband in Chinese, “Hey look, Jesus is serving coffee.”

The walk ended up taking longer than expected, but it was an absolutely beautiful day. We stopped off at Pier 39 for lunch and a few minutes with the sea lions.

New England Clam Chowder in a sourdough bread bowl from Boudin Bakery

It was mid-afternoon by the time we reached the bike shop, and we were anxious and a little nervous to begin our journey. You may not know this about me, but I learned how to ride a bike pretty late – sometime in my tween years. I rarely biked after I learned, and I still don’t even own a bike. So, our endeavour across the bridge was quite a challenge for me.

Embarrassingly, I fell and crashed into the fence a couple times (due to overly aggressive pro bikers!), but the amazing views and the feeling of accomplishment I experienced were well worth the scratches and bruises.

After returning our bikes, we headed over to Ghirardelli Square to reward ourselves with some world-famous ice cream.

Banana Split, all mine!

We looked around the shops in the Square and found a couple of amazing shops that sold quirky novelty items and postcards that were so much nicer than the stock tourist trap ones. I sent less than 10 of mine, so if you got a postcard from me, you should feel very loved!😉 We got overly excited in almost all the shops that we visited and came out 2 hours later with new hand creams, a t-shirt (with a bike on it! To commemorate my huge accomplishment, obviously), a sleeping mask, baby clothes, the All My Friends Are Dead books, a necklace, and an adorable bird cage home decoration for my cousin. All very necessary items, I assure you.

By the time we got back to Oakland, it was quite late at night and there weren’t many places still open where we could eat. After a bit of nervous venturing, O suggested we go around the corner to the House of Chicken and Waffles.

So. Freaking. Delicious.

I don’t know if I was just so starved and tired from our bike ride, or if the food was actually as good as I remember it, but the combination of chicken and waffles is like food from the heavens. The best. We were the only Asians in the entire restaurant and I’m afraid I might sound a bit ignorant here, but with J coming from HK and me from Toronto, we rarely hear people actually speak ebonics other than in music, TV, or movies. Hearing the conversation of the guys at the table next to us was oddly surreal. Anyway, it was the perfect way to end off a fulfilling first day.